Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. v. of Predestination. 139
they would be such." But the "
Apostle says, Chose not
because we were, but that we might be holy and with
out blame." They were to be such, then, because He
elected them and predestinated them to be such by His
grace. l
The text, again (Rom. ix. 11), respecting Jacob and
Esau, c For the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that
calleth, is strongly insisted upon as obviously, and at first
sight disproving the conditional ground attributed by some
to predestination ; and the explanation by which this
natural inference from the passage is met, viz. that the
election of Jacob in preference to Esau, though not caused
by any difference of conduct between them at the time,
inasmuch as they were not yet born, was yet caused by
the difference which was to be and which God foresaw, is
rejected, as depending on a distinction wholly irrelevant ;
it making no difference to works as a cause of election,
whether they operate thus as present or as foreseen works.
Jacob was not loved because he was of such a character,
or because he was to be ; but he was made of such a
character because he was loved non ideo quia tails erat,
vel talis futurus erat dilectum, sed talem, quia dilectus
est, factum. The Apostle does not lie. Jacob was not
loved on account of works, for if of works, then no more
of grace ; but he was loved on account of grace,
2 "
made him to abound in works. It is
which
not of
grace
him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that
"
showeth mercy ? God had not mercy on Jacob, there
fore, because Jacob willed and ran ; but Jacob willed and
ran because God had mercy. For the will is prepared by
the Lord. 3 < " Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
The Apostle speaks of an election, where God does not find
something done by another for Him to choose, but some
"
thing to choose which He Himself does ubi Deus non
ab olio factum quod eligat invenit, sed quod inveniat
" As he says of the remnant of Israel, There
ipse facit"
1 De Prsed. Sanct. c. xviii.
2
Op. Imp., Contra Jul. 1. 1. c. 133.
* Ibid. c. 141.